Artists: ŠPELA ROBLEK, KLARA KOTNIK, MARJETA BARIČEVIČ, NEŽA KNEZ, TIN ŠVAGELJ, ANŽE SEVER, TOMO STANIČ, STAŠ VRENKO AND TANJA SABOL

People walk around the streets, towns, countries all alone, whether in groups or not.

 

This street intervention is based on the unexpected interaction of the passer-by with sensors connected with lights. Each lamp turns out 10 seconds after switching on, and thus all the installed lamps successively illuminate the entire path that the passer-by makes through the passageway. The lights are accompanied by inarticulate sounds. The experience is very real and direct, since the surroundings react exclusively on the movements of the passer-by, and he/she can only get out of the light when leaving the passageway.  We explore the issues of control and monitoring, but also the reactions of people to the impulses from their surroundings. The minimal installation is unnoticeable at the first sight, but it drives the passer-by into a cascade of intense instant experiences.

 

Shimmering is placed in the contemporary everyday situation, in which we always observe and are constantly monitored. The monitoring takes place whether we are active or passive, publicly or illegally. The combination of the ‘spotlight’ and accompanying inarticulate sounds provokes anxiety and tension … a kind of reversal of the positive connotations of shimmering.

 

An individual entering into the space of our intervention is not aware of what will happen, since nothing warns him/her in advance. Therefore his/her feelings and reactions on the spotlights directed towards him/her alone are elemental – as if someone would suddenly start to take photographs with flash during his/her regular activities. People wince, feel insecure, want to know who is watching and why. This work is based on the momentary flash of awareness about the omnipresent control over the individual in society, or the citizen in the state.

 

Co-produced by Academy of Fine Arts and Design.